


New Horizon

by Corveille



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Flora & Fauna, Alien Planet, Alien/Human Relationships, Aliens, Alternate Universe - Space, Andrydian, Elijah Kamski Being Elijah Kamski, Gavin Reed Being an Idiot, Gavin Reed is Bad at Feelings, Gay Disaster Gavin Reed, Lack of Communication, M/M, Masturbation in Shower, Pining, Protective Upgraded Connor | RK900, Protectiveness, Reed900RBB2020, Science, Space Stations, Tina Chen & Gavin Reed Friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:15:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27834403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corveille/pseuds/Corveille
Summary: Gavin joins a program called New Horizon and gets to explore new planets throughout the galaxy.He also gets to catch feelings for his alien partner Nines in the process.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 11
Kudos: 70
Collections: Reed900 Reverse Big Bang





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [leFr0g](https://archiveofourown.org/users/leFr0g/gifts).



> Hello everyone! Here's our contribution to the [Reed900 Reverse Big Bang 2020](https://twitter.com/Reed900RBB) with some amazing art done by my lovely artist partner [Levionok](https://twitter.com/levionok)
> 
> Thank you admins for organizing this wonderful event so we could throw in more Reed900 content around! And a big thanks to [Gen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gegenschein/pseuds/Gegenschein) for beta reading this chapter.
> 
> You can see Levi's art piece for the event in [here](https://twitter.com/levionok/status/1334248112815300608?s=20), and an older piece in [here](https://twitter.com/levionok/status/1281317335844995073)
> 
> Just so you know, more tags will be added as this story is updated. Hope you enjoy it!

Gavin doesn’t really know what he’s doing here. Sitting in a lonely chair in a waiting room, about to go in and meet the alien that'll act as his partner in a cramped space station for months.

He looks down at the file currently open on the screen, sees the New Horizon logo on the corner; the same one that’s branded on the wristband he’s wearing. That little ringed planet with the initial ‘NH’ right in the middle of it. 

He’d joined the program on an impulse when CyberSpace offered the opportunity to jump in—that’s how he’s always been, one impetuous decision after the other.

He knew what this was about, explore new planets out there, work in harmony with some fucking aliens to help build up more stations humans could use across the universe. The whole sci-fi experience he’d seen in so many movies throughout his youth.

Or, at least, that’s the usual bullshit everyone spouted around here.

His eyes settle on the species designation on the file again. Andrydian.  
  
  
Not like he hadn’t seen them before, there were enough of those fuckers in I-Delta—and he worked closely enough with them while he was on the force. Had to sit through the class course while he was in training, but he’d never interacted so directly with them before. Most he got were a few words and passing glances.

He’d known what they looked like, since he was a dumb teen with far too much time on his hands. Big, scaly and full of sharp edges, teeth and claws. A mix between a human and a fucking crocodile, he used to joke with his friends. Back when the Earth was still a thing.

And now he’s going to be working with one of them, side by side.

“Mr. Reed?” Someone calls, catching Gavin’s attention. He looks up from his seat and his eyes meet with a woman with long hair, dressed in a fancy white lab coat. That same New Horizon logo stamped on one of the breast pockets.

“Yeah?”

“Please follow me, we have a room ready for you two to meet,” she says and gestures him forward—she must have seen the tension clinging to Gavin's shoulders, because she gives him a smile, warm. “He’s not as scary as you might think.”

Great, now the staff is trying to make him feel better.

“Sure thing,” he says as he gets up. His fingers grip the tablet in his hand tight as he follows her, passing room after room until they come to a stop. A silver door stands in front of them, Gavin watches mutely as the lady presses the bracelet on her wrist into the scanner on the wall.

“Please take a seat,” she instructs. “If you ever feel you want to leave, just press the button on the band around your wrist. Someone will come to let you out shortly after.”

Gavin looks down at the bracelet that he himself is wearing, sees the digital disk highlighted with a blue circle. Well, that’s reassuring.

“Yeah, got it.”

The lady stares at him for a few seconds with an unreadable look before uttering, “Thank you for giving this a try.”

  
  
Gavin raises an eyebrow at that, before giving a small shrug. “Uh, sure.”

The door slides closed behind him once he crosses the threshold. The room that greets him on the other end is mostly bare, just four walls with a few decorations here and there. A table with two chairs standing in the center, light shining down on it, and Gavin feels like he’s back in an interrogation room.

No trace of his soon-to-be partner alien, yet. There’s a door similar to the one behind him on the other side of the room, so he’ll probably be seeing the Andrydian soon.

Gavin rubs his sweaty palms on the sides of his jeans and awkwardly makes his way to the table, seating himself in the cold chair.

He drops the tablet in front of him, busies himself with reading the file again, mentally preparing himself.

_Species: Andrydian._

_Age: 37 human years of age._

_Height: 7’2”._

_Weight: 245 pounds._

_Recruit has specified to be referred to as he._

_Status: Stable._

Gavin snorts at that last one, he’ll be the judge of that.

He focuses on the picture on the top right corner while he waits. He still finds it a little strange—the scales on most Andrydians he’d seen were gray in tone, but the alien staring back at Gavin is a mix of black and white. Pointy ears that remind him of a cat. Sharp facial angles and rough edges covered with hard plates. 

The Andrydian’s body is dark, doesn’t have any of his lights—diodes—glowing in the picture, so Gavin can’t tell for sure how he’s feeling. He looks pretty pissed, staring at the camera with narrowed eyes, but maybe that’s just how he usually looks.

“An alien with resting bitch face syndrome,” he mumbles, with his luck that’s probably it.

He’s almost finished with his reread when he hears the door on the other side of the room sliding open.

And, well—that file wasn’t lying about the height. The Andrydian has to duck his head to avoid hitting the door frame. Gavin leans back into his seat, resting both of his hands on his lap and gripping at the fabric of his jeans.

The Andrydian grumbles as he enters, probably not too happy about having to keep a close eye on door sizes around here. He stretches to his full height and—

Okay, Gavin knew they were big—he _knew_ the numbers in the docs weren’t just for show, but with him sitting down at the table, this one seemed fucking enormous. He’s sure the guy could just lift his arm and easily touch the ceiling if he wanted to.

Piercing blue eyes settle on him, the room lights up as rows of diodes in the Andrydian’s body glow and dim in a synchronized dance. _Like watching fireflies_ , is what comes to Gavin’s mind as his own eyes flicker to a tail, swaying around inside the room. 

The lights are blue—means he’s calm for now, so Gavin’s off to a good start. 

The alien takes slow steps forward, long shining claws taking hold of the empty chair across the table to pull it back. His tail swings back and forth as he sits down, making the chair sink and groan in protest.

The room’s filled with a tense silence. Gavin resists the urge to squirm under the intense stare the alien gives him. He waits for his future partner to make the first move, allowing him to have the first say. Other than showing his teeth, however, the alien does little else.

So, Gavin will have to break the silence first. Fan-fucking-tastic.

“So I guess I don’t have to tell you my name, probably read my file and all that shit right?”

The Andrydian gives a nod. Good, the less he has to talk about himself the better.

He knows this species would usually use clicks and growls to communicate, their names something humans could never hope to replicate with their vocal chords. The file had given him little to work with in that regard.

"Got a name I can call you?" Gavin asks, because if they _are_ going to work together he's going to need a nickname, at the very least. "Or should I just call you Andry for the rest of our partnership?"

  
That question earns him a growl, so the alien probably doesn't like the name. Roger that.

The Andrydian glares down at him, but slowly brings his arm forward, taps at the serial number on the file on the screen tablet Gavin's holding. _900._

"Nine-hundred, huh? That's a mouthful." Too fucking long of a name to shout out every time they have to go exploring. Gavin drums his fingers on the table. "Mind if I call you Nines, for short?"

The Andrydian gives him a contemplative look for a bit, thinking the nickname over. After a moment of silence, he finally nods, a soft rumble reverberating in his chest. Gavin takes that as a good sign.

Okay then, one thing settled, now for the next.

"You're not the talkative type, are you?" And with that question, Gavin knows he's fucked up somewhere. The Andrydian's shoulders grow tense, and the diodes on his head—that had been glowing a calm blue light so far—turn to yellow. 

Gavin remembers from the file, remembers what he’d been told when he worked as a cop: _Proceed with caution._

"Hey now, don't freak out on me." He tries to keep his tone light, mostly teasing. Those are some pretty dangerous daggers the alien has at the end of his fingers and Gavin would rather not experience the damage they can do first hand. "Was just curious, is all. We're going to be working together out there. I need to know if we have to work on a signal system or—"

"Can… talk." Gavin shuts his mouth with a click, listening to the alien speak. "Don't do, often." 

Nines' voice is heavy and pretty deep. Rough around the edges, like the alien hasn't used it in a while. But, well, not like _Gavin’s_ is something to die for either.

"Right," he says once he's sure Nines is done talking. "Yeah, sure. I can work with that."

The diodes slowly go back to blue. 

Silence fills the room again. Gavin looks for some topic to bring up and make this _less_ of an awkward shitshow than it currently feels like.

“So this is your first time partnering with a human?” Nines moves his head in a shake, pauses, and then gives a nod, seemingly changing his mind. Gavin raises an eyebrow, but continues. “Yeah, kind of the same answer here. Saw some of you guys around where I worked, but never had to work with an Andrydian directly.” 

He snorts. “Didn’t think they would partner me up with a giant, though. Fuckin’ towering over me, way to make a guy feel insignificant.”

And there he goes running his mouth. He’s just trying to joke around, break the tension and all that, but fuck if he doesn’t sound a little aggressive while doing so. He should really watch his tongue more, or else he’ll accidentally piss Nines off.

Gavin almost thinks that’s the case when Nines lets out a hiss, but then he sees the way the alien’s shoulders shake and catches the hint of amusement in his eyes. The lights on his body still give off that blue hue...

Motherfucker’s laughing at him.

“Maybe… you’re just small,” Nines says, the corners of his mouth turning to reveal sharp teeth. Oh, Gavin’s not letting that slide.

“I’m fucking average, you bootleg Xenomorph,” he snaps back before he can reel himself in. To his relief, the diodes on Nines’ face keep their blue glow, letting him know he hasn’t completely fucked up yet.

Nines gives a throaty huff.

“And you, a meat sack… like all humanz.”

Gavin narrows his eyes at that. So far, his English has not had the best structure, but the words sound just fine. However, the way Nines says “humans” is a bit wrong, and the alien doesn’t seem ready to correct himself. 

Maybe he’s simply doing it to spite him.

“Careful, Nines.” Gavin brings his arm up and slaps his bicep a few times. “This meat sack could totally kick your scaly ass.” He absolutely, one hundred percent fucking _couldn’t_. The size of those arms put Gavin’s attempt at looking buff to shame. 

Guy doesn’t have any eyebrows and yet, he’s doing a pretty good job of looking unimpressed. Nines leans back into his seat and crosses his arms. “Wouldn’t last,” he says.

“Oh, yeah?” he says without missing a beat. “Think I could at least land a pretty good punch to your face— _holy fucking shit!_ ”

Okay so, he had read the file, really; he knew that these fuckers could open their mouth wide like snakes and had absurdly long tongues. Didn’t fucking _know_ they could split their jaws in multiple parts, too. _Three_ , to be exact. All of them pointy. 

_Fucking chainsaws glued together,_ Gavin thinks as he reflexively leans over the table to take a closer look. Nines seems surprised by the reaction, eyes wide as Gavin runs the tip of a finger over one of those sharp fangs.

“Dude, this is some freaky shit,” Gavin says with a grin. “Could probably crush a guy’s bones to dust if you snapped these babies shut.”

A rough hand moves up to pull his own away. Yellow claws close over his knuckles, not to scratch his hand to ribbons, but to remove his fingers from Nines’ teeth. The jaws close up and shit—there he goes again making his soon-to-be partner uncomfortable.

Nines is looking at him, a conflicted expression on his face, as if he can’t decide what to make of Gavin. And yeah, okay, maybe he shouldn’t have eagerly shoved his hand into the Andrydian’s mouth like that—maybe he broke some sort of alien etiquette rule or some shit.

“Humanz, weird,” is what Nines goes with after a while, and releases Gavin’s hand.

“Yeah, guess we are,” Gavin mutters, falling back into his seat.

Back to the silence, though this time, there’s a bit more tension hanging over them. Nines is looking away from him, finding the far wall really interesting all of the sudden. Gavin doesn’t need more than that to realize that, yeah, he fucked up somehow.

So, Gavin does the best thing he can think of to fix this.

“Hey Nines,” he calls, grinning when the Andrydian gives him a suspicious glare. “I could still take you, just so you know.”

For a second Nines says nothing, and then he huffs.

“Doubt it,” he rasps with crossed arms, but he is smiling. And really, that’s all Gavin needs.

Someone eventually comes in to check on them. A man, this time, same lab coat as the woman earlier. He stands at the door and gives them a look Gavin finds hard to read, makes no move to get closer.

“The meeting time is up,” he calls, focusing his attention mostly on Gavin. “Do you think you’ll be working with 900?” he asks, side-eyeing the Andrydian.

Gavin looks back at Nines. The Andrydian’s gripping the edge of the table, staring at the man with what Gavin could best describe as a scowl on his face. 

When Nines feels Gavin’s eyes on him, he turns to him, his face gives nothing away but his diodes emit a gold hue. He sits there, quiet, waiting for the verdict.

“Mr. Reed?”

“Yeah,” Gavin says without turning his gaze away. “Think we’ll be just fine.”

The yellow lasts for a few more seconds, and then the room fills with blue.

* * *

The drill of his mechanical arm works on breaking the rough surface of a bundle of crystals attached to the leaves of an unfamiliar plant. Their edges are sharp and hard to the touch, like everything else on this fucking planet.

Gavin takes his eyes off the holographic screen at the corner of his helmet—the reported progress of his mining activity blinking distractingly in his peripheral. 

His shoulders pop as he readjusts the grip on his weapon, his neck following with a sharp crack.

  
It’s been a few months since Gavin became a scout and he _still_ has trouble getting used to the space suit. The metal plates weigh down on him like boulders with every step he takes. He’s pretty sure his joints are going to kill him once he gets back to the ship.

He sighs into the gas mask, slow and heavy.

Supposedly, all suits were made to scale, so Gavin can only guess someone fucked up _somewhere_ while calibrating the weight distribution on his.

Well, that, and there’s the fact that this planet’s atmospheric density is a hell of a lot higher than what he’s used to. Leaves him wishing he had kept up with the gym training a bit more. 

A piece of pale crystal breaks from the rock, finally, and the mechanical arm takes the sample carefully and drops it back into a tube. The cap seals shut with a hiss and the tube settles back into a container inside the suit. 

Gavin turns to the large figure that’s inspecting some bushes a few feet away from where he stands.

“Hey Nines!” he calls. “Found anything?”

Nines pauses in his tracks and turns to look at him, standing up to his full height. Gavin sees how his eyes dilate as they zero in on his position, a freaky little tic that reminds him of a cat about to pounce.

Makes sense, he supposes, considering he’s basically a very large predator.

“No,” he says and follows the word with a rumble. Gavin recognizes that sound well enough to know the guy’s frustrated. Hell, he is too. The two had been scouting the area for an hour, at the very least. While Gavin had taken some good samples to take back to the Garden for analysis, they have yet to find any creatures. Weird, considering the survey unit they sent a few weeks prior had detected some movement, before they got to their tourer. 

“You?” Nines says, voice rough. He trains his pistol upward as he waits for an answer, the diodes all over his body glowing bright blue in anticipation, but Gavin will have to disappoint him.

“Nah, nothing.” Whatever the hell the thing was that alerted the scans, it’s long gone by now. Probably hiding away in some cave or a crack like a fucking weasel. “But hey, we got enough to take back to base for now.”

That won’t do anything to lift Nines’ mood and Gavin knows it, but it’s the only thing he can think to say. The Andrydian’s been itching to stretch his legs since they got assigned this scout mission. He wants something to fight against, must be that instinct to hunt.  
  


Gavin’s about to deny him that, at least for today, but he’s only human and can do only so much.

He brings a hand up to the side of his helmet, activating the intercom.

“Chen,” he calls for their pilot, “you copy?”

“Hey, Gav,” Tina replies right away, taking professionalism straight out of the damn shuttle. “Still alive out there, I see.”

“What can I say? I’m a tough bastard to kill,” Gavin says, a hint of a smile on his face. “I think we’re done here for now, got enough minerals with me. I think Eli will have a field day.”

“Roger that.” Tina pauses for a second as her fingers type on the console. “The Garden will have Dock Two ready for us when we get back.” 

“Got it,” he breathes into the intercom. He can’t wait to get a shower and get back to his bed, in a room with _normal_ atmospheric pressure. 

“You guys have good timing too,” Tina pipes in before Gavin can cut the connection. “Hank and 800 just got back from their scouting mission on the other side.”

“Great. Can’t wait to have to put up with _those_ assholes.” Always getting under Gavin’s skin somehow, those two. Though he’d tolerate Hank’s company if the man was alone—and if alcohol could be involved in some form. 

Eight, though, was another matter entirely.

“What a coincidence, Hank said basically the same thing just now when I let them know you were coming.” 

Ha, fucking hilarious.

“Focus on piloting the ship,” Gavin snaps back. “We’ll be there shortly. Out.”

“Take care, Gav!” comes from the intercom before it goes dead. Yeah, right he will.

Got the ship part handled, now for the next part.  
  


Gavin turns his head slightly to glance at Nines. The alien doesn’t look back at him, but he doesn’t need to for Gavin to guess what he's thinking. The lights on his tail, slowly shifting from blue to yellow—glowing with a neon red at the tip are telling enough.  
  
  
“Hey, big guy,” Gavin starts, only to receive a growl in return. Yeah, this is going to fucking suck, ain’t it? “Nines, come on.”

Gavin grunts at the alien, freeing one hand from its grip on his laser rifle to make a ‘over here’ motion. He watches the studs on his tail and head closely, waiting for them to change color. As long as they don’t stick to red for too long, he doesn’t risk losing an arm.

“I know you want to wrestle around with the fauna out here, that’s all fine and dandy but we can’t do that today.” That makes the growl turn into a softer rumble. Gavin takes that as small progress. 

“Believe me, I’d love to watch you take down some trophies but these masks have a limited air supply. And I’m not exactly jumping at the idea of spending a night out here on a wild unexplored planet.” As far as logical arguments go, Gavin thinks he’s got a pretty solid one. 

“I protect you,” Nines argues, still not looking at him.

“Yeah, I know,” Gavin says, not missing a beat. “That’s not the actual issue here. I know you could rip all the fucking trees in this place to shreds if you wanted.” But they need to make their way back to Garden Station, hand in the samples they’ve collected for further processing and prepare for Day fucking Two. 

“We’ll be here tomorrow to hunt some more.”

Nines still doesn’t look entirely convinced, though Gavin has his attention now, at least. He just needs to push a little more, hit where it counts.

“We also gotta feed Budweiser, you know,” he says, knowing that’ll garner a reaction.

Nines seems to relent at the mention of his pet toad. His body glows blue as he sets his pistol to safety mode. “Fine, we go.”

“C’mon, big guy.” Gavin gives him a smirk, silently enjoying his victory as the two make their way back to the tourer.

* * *

It doesn’t take them long to get back to Garden, loading their ship into Dock Two, showing their credentials and waiting for their request to go through so they can get inside.

Having to listen to the robotic AI talking about how they should _‘please wait until the room is fully pressurized to take off their suits’,_ yeah, no fucking shit.

From there, they make their way out of the shuttle, pass through the decontamination chamber—set the samples in a container to be whisked off to the lab—and then head to the storage room to start the arduous process of taking off their suits.

Same room, same routine, every day.

Same people, too.

“Hey Gavin,” Chris says as he enters the room. Case and point. 

He gives Gavin’s suit a look over. “Doesn't look like you roughed it up too much this time.” 

“Yeah,” Gavin grunts as he removes his helmet, setting it inside the locker. “Your baby was okay, didn’t give me _too_ much trouble.”

Chris arches an eyebrow. “Anything I should look into?”

“Felt a bit too much weight on my shoulder,” he explains as he taps on the buttons of the suit, a hiss emerging as the plates detach from his body. “Fucking annoying but I could handle it, for the most part.”

He frees his arm and gives his right shoulder a few rotations, stretches his neck to get rid of the odd feeling in his joints. Barely pays attention to where Nines is.

And maybe that’s why Gavin bumps into Nines’ chest as he steps out of his suit, feels hot breath hitting the back of his head—making the hair there stand up as Nines lets out a questioning rumble that goes straight to Gavin’s bones.

“Christ, do you always have to be so close?” Gavin asks as he scrambles back, trips over some cables in his attempt to put some distance between them. He glares up at the alien, rubs at the stubble on his face in a failed effort to stop his cheeks from coloring.

“Funny… to see you jump,” Nines says, a too-sharp grin on his face. Dick.

“You’re a fucking menace, you know that?”

“Right… back.”

“Boys, _please,_ ” Chris begs as he brings his hands up and steps between them. He keeps his eyes on Gavin. “So, gotta look into the weight distribution in your suit, and you, 900?” He turns to Nines. “Everything ok?”

Nines shakes his head, taking his helmet out and giving it to Chris. He undoes the straps of his shirt—don’t need an extra suit when your scales can handle the changes just fine. When you have so much muscle under that rough skin that you can brush up against the weight of the atmosphere as if it were nothing—

Gavin blinks as he notices how Nines is staring at him, the diodes on his body changing between blue and yellow.

  
  
Shit.

“Guess you’re all set,” Chris says after looking over the settings on Nines’ helmet. “Do you think I could see—”

“I’m heading out while you two finish up.” Gavin says, sharply cutting the conversation short—making both Chris and Nines look at him. 

He can feel his skin growing warm at the sudden scrutiny, but he turns on his heel and starts walking out the door before either of them can say anything. 

Before Nines can catch him ogling his body again.

He takes the lift to the upper levels of the ship, quickly makes his way to his and Nines’ shared room. Doesn’t stick around too long in there, going into the hallway.

“Hey there, Bud,” Gavin says to the shining white toad staring at him through the glass of his tank as he enters his personal room. The little shit licks at one of his eyeballs, barely moving from his spot. “Yeah, yeah. I know what you want.”

He flicks a switch on top of the tank, casting the interior in a faint fluorescent hue. See if that wakes him up. 

Taking a small container filled with dry pieces of meat, Gavin watches the alien toad come to life. He follows Gavin’s hand around the tank as he waves the flask from one side to the other.

“Only want me for my food, you little shit.” Gavin dangles a piece over a gap built in the enclosure, smiles as Bud’s tongue shoots out to catch it.

Technically, pets were not allowed on top of the NH-Garden-AB unless you filled out a form and jumped through other bureaucratic hoops Gavin couldn’t give a rat’s ass about. 

Being the smart man that he is, he just up and snatched the toad from the lab tanks and hid it in his room—later he found out Chloe, one of the lab assistants, had _known_ the whole fucking time, but she let him do it, anyway. Considering how torn Eli was that he didn’t get to dissect the little guy, Gavin owed her one for that. 

He’d pulled a few strings here and there, begged the right people—and managed to keep the Xeno-toad for himself. Thing was small enough to keep under wraps, as long as he didn’t parade him around.

“Bet you would pay more attention to Nines, traitor.”

As if summoned by the name, Gavin hears the outside door sliding open as Nines enters the common area. He changes into a new set of clothes before exiting his own room.

Nines is there, shirtless and with a band tying up the thick braids on his head. His core is shining brightly in the center of his body, pulsing with shades of blue. Gavin’s eyes definitely don’t linger on his toned chest—again. 

“Ah, speak of the devil,” Gavin says as he walks back to take Bud out of his tank. Thrusts him right at Nines’ face when the alien’s close enough. “You wanted us to leave this little guy alone and starved just to go hunting. Fucking apologize, asshole.”

Nines freezes in his tracks, gives Gavin a confused look. His eyes soften slightly when he looks at the toad. He takes a step back and brings one hand up to pat Bud’s head.

“Sorry,” Nines says. Bud blinks up at the Andrydian, then opens his mouth to shoot his tongue out toward him. It sticks to Nines’ palm and in seconds, Bud is jumping from Gavin’s hands and biting down on Nines’ fingers.

Both of them look down at the toad in shock, but it is Gavin who laughs his ass off first.

“Apology not fucking accepted,” he grits out through his wheezes as he takes Budweiser off of Nines’ hand, moving back to drop him into the tank again before closing the door to his room. “Gonna have to try harder than that.”

There’s the sound of a huff somewhere behind him. “Fine. I will.”

“Damn right,” Gavin says with a harsh expression on his face, one that only stays a few more seconds before a grin replaces it. 

“I’m making you feed him for a week, to make it up to him,” he says as he reaches for the coffee machine near the wall. The device shudders to life as Gavin turns it on. He works on getting his drink set up just the way he likes.

As he busies himself looking for his favorite thermal mug on top of the machine, Nines walks over and takes a seat in one of the beanbags near the corner.

“I will not fail.” 

Gavin huffs out a laugh, hearing how serious Nines sounds about it. Not like Bud will mind who feeds him as long as he gets to stuff his face. 

  
The machine lets out a beep: drink done; Gavin takes a sip of that sweet caffeinated elixir and murmurs, “Fuck, I love you,” into his cup. He catches Nines grimacing at him. “Not my fucking problem your taste buds are shit.”

“Not my taste buds, that drink”—Nines scrunches up his nose—“is shit.”

“Everyone’s a critic,” Gavin says as he sits on one of the chairs next to the table. “You just don’t appreciate the magic of coffee.”

“Maybe.” Nines claws tap on the soft cover of his seat. He looks at Gavin for a minute, long enough to make Gavin’s attention drift back to his cup.

Gavin hears the beanbag shifting, footsteps getting closer. He plays with a tablet on the table, focuses on his coffee in favour of ignoring Nines’ growing proximity. His gaze settles on the wall-sized window screen, the stardust floating outside the ship blocked by holograms.

“Gavin,” Nines says with a rough voice, standing in front of the table, staring at Gavin with such intensity that it makes him put down his drink. “Everything okay?” Nines asks, a frown pulling at his mouth.

_Damn it, Nines_.

Gavin swallows, perhaps a bit hard, feeling the hot drink burning as it travels down his throat. He turns to look at Nines and gives him what he hopes passes for a smile.

“Yeah? Just tired,” he answers. Not technically a lie, but not the whole truth either. “Walking all over the place down there left me kinda drained. It might not tire you out much, but we humans aren’t so lucky.”

Nines tilts his head at him, mulling his words over.

“Okay,” he finally says. Thank God. “Sleep?”

“In a second.” Gavin waves his hand. “Want to shower first.”

He gulps down the remainder of his drink, sets the mug down and pushes his chair back with his arms. 

“Speaking of, might be best to get right on that.” He throws a smirk at Nines as he gets up. “It’s ok gramps, you can rest your bones while I’m at it.”

That earns him a grumble. “Your bones are weak. Not mine.” That’s what Nines says, but he relents, going down the hallway and entering his room.

“Yeah, rub it in, asshole.” Gavin flips his finger at Nines’ closing door and makes his way out of their shared recreational area and into his room again to grab for some towels.

* * *

The shower rooms are nothing too special, split in a way that leaves the area designated for Andrydian use completely separate from the human area. Each shower is a narrow individual cubicle with a glass door that fogs up with steam. 

Gavin always tries to claim the one furthest away from the door. Always stays past the usual time, waiting until he’s sure nobody’s around. Low murmurs and wet footsteps growing faint in the distance, until there’s just the sound of his running water. Only him, his thoughts and a row of empty shower stalls. 

Small droplets running lukewarm down his body. A soap-covered hand moving along his abdomen.

Gavin starts slow, usually, leisured strokes along his cock that gradually grow more frantic as he lets his mind unravel.  
  


Pictures of Nines flash in his eyes as he thrusts into his hand. Gavin fantasizes about Nines’ tongue taking the place of his fingers, this time, running up and down his length, warm and slick. The danger of having those razor-sharp teeth being so close to his dick making his leg weak.

Gavin imagines his other hand gripping at one of those braids, those glowing eyes looking up at him. Nines’ mouth vibrating with those growls and clicks he does.

“Fuck,” Gavin chokes out between moans, leans forward to press his forehead against the tiles of the stall wall, water raining down onto his back. He bucks harder into his hand, his dick wet and throbbing with need.

  
  


Heat pools all over his body. His stomach clenches as he thinks about Nines—growling into his ear as he presses into him, as Gavin ruts against that huge fucking body of his. He cannot swallow the groan stuck in the back of his throat, his eyes shut tight as he keeps pumping, his movements growing in speed. 

And he imagines, _God—_ would Nines’ cock be like a human’s? Would it be smooth or have bumps, glow like the rest of his body? Does he even _have_ something like that? Gavin has no frame of reference for it, didn’t have the guts to do his research. Whatever might be documented out there doesn’t compare to what his mind can craft.

His body shakes as his pleasure builds up inside him, reaching its plateau. He feels the ghost of hands—sharp claws, grabbing at his hips, curving around the shape of his ass. Digging into his skin and leaving long-lasting marks on him.

“Nines—” the name sounds closer to a whine on his lips as an orgasm rips through him, warm between his fingers.

He gasps, watching his come run down the wall and disappear down the drain, mixing with the water that flows between his feet. Gavin’s hand moves to grab for the soap again.

Same room, same routine, every night.

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is chapter two of this alien AU, in which I try to write add some science into the mix.
> 
> Took me a bit longer to get everything set but hopefully you guys enjoy it. I had some good people that helped me get this little chapter out :)
> 
> Thank you [Sun](https://www.archiveofourown.org/users/Sunkiller44/pseuds/Sunkiller44), Nolf and [Gen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gegenschein/pseuds/Gegenschein) for beta-ing.
> 
> And a wonderful illustration of our little pet toad Bud, made by [Levionok](https://twitter.com/levionok)

Gavin wakes up to a loud knocking on his door and a crick in his neck. He tries to ignore the noise, at first. Closes his eyes tight and  _ tries _ to keep sleeping, because he's sure as fuck it isn’t time to wake up yet.   
  


The knocking keeps going, though, gets louder with each rap. A growl comes from the other side of the door. 

Fucking  _ Nines—  _ _   
  
_

"Fuck off," he mutters at the Andrydian and hides his head under the covers, but of course that does little to stop the alien.

With a groan, Gavin brings his hand from under the sheets, fumbles with his wristband before he manages to clip it on despite sleep still fogging his brain.

"Fucking—yeah, yeah I'm coming," he says as he sluggishly drags himself out of bed, feeling more tired than ever before.

He walks up to the door and brings his wristband to the scanner. It unlocks with a short beep and there his partner stands in all his alien glory, looking down at Gavin with his arms folded in front of his chest.

"The fuck do you want?" Gavin snaps, but can anyone really blame him for being a dick? He's never been a morning person, unlike this asshole here.

Nines looks completely unfazed by his bitchy attitude. His diodes blink blue all over his body as he nods towards Gavin's room.

"Budweiser," he says. "I have to feed him."

Gavin stares up at Nines for a bit, wondering why the fuck he seems so eager to feed the toad. Gavin's the one that usually handles the feedings, makes sure the little bastard gets his fill. Never had any reason to make Nines—and then it hits him, like a train.

Their fucking talk yesterday.

"God," Gavin mutters with a groan. "You really took those words to heart, didn't you?"

Nines has the audacity to smirk down at him.

"Told you, will not fail." He moves to step into Gavin's room but Gavin plants himself firmly in front of the entrance and places a hand on Nines' chest.

"Hold it," he says. Pointing to the floor with a finger, he goes on, "Wait right here. I'm bringing Bud and the food out to you. My bedroom’s already cramped enough without a seven-foot giant alien bumping into things." 

That, and he's not trapping himself at close quarters with his wet dream of a partner, no matter how much his brain is screaming at him right now to do it like the shameless slut that it is.

"Okay," Nines grumbles with his ears down, looking like a kicked puppy, but he takes a step back and waits in the hall. Gavin throws one last look at him to make sure he actually stays there, and goes back inside his room.

He walks to his desk in the corner and picks up the dried meat container, leaning down to flick on the switch for lights in the tank. 

"Wake up, Bud, Nines is feeding you today." Gavin taps on the glass a few times until he sees Bud opening his eyes with a slow blink. 

Not an early bird either, he can commiserate. 

He looks at the wide wall screen next to his bed and checks the time. And suddenly, he feels like slamming his head against the desk. Fucker woke him up almost thirty minutes before his alarm.

"I give you full permission to bite him again. Do it for me, Bud," Gavin tells his pet toad as he lifts him out of the enclosure. 

Using his bracelet on the door again, Gavin exits the room and hands Nines both toad and food. "Here, have fun you two," he mutters before making a beeline down the hallway, his mind set on getting a cup of coffee just so he can make it through the day.

"Thank you." He hears Nines say to him.

"Fuck you, too" is Gavin's reply to that.

* * *

“Wow,” Tina comments the moment she sees Gavin enter the cafeteria. “You look like shit.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Gavin says as he walks over to the counter, flipping her off. He stands next to her and inputs the code for the food he’s craving—something with meat. The machine chirps as it prepares his meal.

Gavin spots Hank making his way to a table, Eight following his steps like a loyal puppy. And here he’d hoped he wouldn’t have to see them so early. He sees Nines walking through the doors, his gaze settling just for a moment on the tables where the rest of the Andrydians are, before it finds Gavin.

Gavin has always found it weird how Nines would choose to sit with them every single time. It wasn’t like Gavin was great company. But Nines went so far as to regularly refuse to sit with Eight, no matter how much the alien asked him.

Tina’s tray is already done by the time he’s getting his, but she has enough decency to wait for him. They walk to sit at their usual table, Nines following close behind once he gets his order.

“Seriously, did you have a fight with the coffee machine today or something?” Tina asks once they get settled at the table.

“You don’t exactly look like a fucking model either,” Gavin retorts. A bit weak, he knows, but his brain is not all there yet. Not even the coffee is strong enough to lift his mood. 

Tina has the gall to look offended. 

“Excuse you, have you seen my face?”

“Mm,” Gavin says as he picks at the meal on his tray with his fork. “Looking at it right now. Gotta say, not impressed with what I see.”

That earns him a smack to the shoulder.

“Dick,” she mutters before looking over at Nines, who quickly takes a seat on the other side of the table. “What’s up with him, Nines?”

“Mad, woke him up early,” Nines says. He looks at Gavin and offers with a smile, “I’m a better alarm.”

“You did that on fucking purpose and you know it, you Predator knock-off.”

Nines’ diodes shine a brighter blue, so clearly he’s not bothered by the insult.

  
“Bud enjoyed the food,” he says with a shrug.

“Good for him,” Gavin mutters before he bites down on his strip of bacon.

“Not feeling it today, eh?” Tina asks as she brings her drink to her lips, reminding Gavin of how they have to get ready to head out and explore again after they’re finished with breakfast.

“I’d rather be doing something else.” Like sleeping, in his bed, his warm sheets wrapped all around him.

“Rather be doing  _ someone  _ else you mean,” Tina murmurs into her drink, making Gavin almost choke on his meal. He kicks Tina’s shin under the table and sends a heated glare her way.

“Fuck!” she yelps before saying, “You asshole!”

Gavin throws a quick glance at Nines—heart lodged in his throat at the thought that he might question what Tina meant—and finds that Nines is looking at them with his head tilted, confusion written all over his face. 

But luck seems to be on Gavin’s side today, because the Andrydian only stares at them for a few more seconds before he shrugs and goes back to focusing on his food. Gavin turns to Tina again, and finds her wiggling her eyebrows.  _ God _ , he should never have told her about his stupid crush—should’ve taken that secret with him to the grave.

“Something on your mind, Gav—” Tina tries to say, but Gavin kicks her shin again, making her knee jerk and hit the underside of the table. Serves her right. 

“Okay, that's it.” She slams her hands down on the table. “One more kick and we’re taking this outside.”

“Try me, bitch,” Gavin replies, his foot in position to deliver a third kick.

“I could kick your ass without breaking a sweat.” Tina rolls her eyes and gestures to Nines. “I could even kick Nines’ ass, don’t test me, Gav.”

Nines, for his part, looks up at Tina at the mention of his name and huffs,  “Humanz.” He shakes his head, and rests his chin on one hand. “You can try.”

“Don’t know how far ass-kicking will get you, though.” Gavin says before he brings another piece of bacon to his mouth. “Guy’s pretty resilient and tall as shit, but he has a flat ass.”

Nines throws a glare in his direction and Gavin brings his hands up in mock surrender. 

“Don’t look at me like that, I’m just speaking facts.”

“As if yours is any better,” Tina says, taking Nines’ side like the treacherous bitch she is.

“At least I _ have _ an ass,” Gavin retorts., “Sorry, babe,” he says, pointing his fork at Nines. “but you’ll never be on my level.”

Nines shakes his head, and mutters something in his own tongue. A series of clicks and low rumbles Gavin barely catches.

“Hey, you better be complimenting me over there,” he says threateningly as Nines gives him an innocent look.

“Won’t tell,” the Andrydian returns, simply, like a complete asshole.

“Fine, then,” Tina relents with a shrug. “I’ll just kick you both in the dick and call it a day.” Gavin almost thinks he’s off the hook, until her eyes focus on Nines again. “Actually, might be rude to ask, but do you  _ have  _ a dick?”

Nines’ diodes shift to yellow as he considers whether he should answer. Gavin plays with his drink, trying to look bored when in reality he wants nothing more than to know the answer to that question.

He brings the drink to his lips just as Nines replies with, “Both.” And Gavin—well, Gavin properly chokes this time, just a little bit.

He feels a hand hitting his back—Tina’s—and he sets his cup down to instead heave into his palm.

“Jesus,” he says once he’s done coughing a lung out. “Both? What do you mean by  _ both?” _

“I think it’s obvious, Gav,” Tina tells him. He just flips her off again. Nines looks at him with a frown, probably trying to find the right words.

“Both,” Nines repeats, furrowing his brows as he tries to explain. “One and the… other.” And Gavin’s mind begins to go places it should definitely  _ not  _ go while in the middle of a fucking cafeteria. Nines has—all this time, he had limited his fantasies to one side when he could actually have it both ways. He brings his head low as he feels warmth creeping on his neck. 

The fact that Nines is looking at him so intensely now is not exactly helping him keep his own dick in check.

“Cool,” he mutters and gulps down the rest of his drink, setting it back on the table a little harder than is strictly necessary. “I need to take a piss,” he blurts out and stands up. 

He resolutely ignores Tina’s knowing look and Nines’ questioning clicks, and quickly makes his way out of the cafeteria. His destination: the nearest bathroom, to splash his face with cold water and pray he can calm down enough to go back.

* * *

He tries—he really,  _ honest to God _ does his best—but his shameless dick seems to have a mind of its own and no plans to listen to what Gavin wants it to do.

A quick, sloppy jerk-off in a bathroom stall is not how he’d pictured his morning going, but at this point he’s not surprised anymore. One hand busies itself with his cock while the other presses hard into his mouth, muffling his sounds. Dozens of lewd thoughts running wild through his head.

He’s in the process of cleaning himself up when his wristband lights up, alerting Gavin that he’s needed in the docks. With a curse, he finishes up in a rush and exits the stall—throwing the used wipes in the trash, knowing they’ll be burned later, before washing his hands.

Gavin stares at the disheveled man looking back at him in the mirror, tries to flatten the few strands of hair sticking out and over his forehead. He runs one hand over his face, splashes his cheeks with some water and shakes his head. Trying to regain his bearings.

He’s probably lost too much time in here already and Nines is definitely wondering where the fuck he is. Gavin’s not exactly chomping at the bit to answer that question. The alien has about as much tact as a brick smashing through a window, and any minutes wasted are always sure to prompt some kind of exasperating speech about how confusing and irrational “humanz” are. 

Worst of all, Gavin didn’t get to eat the rest of his fucking breakfast.

With a curse, he exits the empty bathroom, not looking forward to this scouting mission.

Of course, Hank and Eight are still in the storage area when Gavin gets there. Of course. Though thankfully Hank simply throws a quick glare at him before he’s heading for the docks.

Eight, on the other hand...

“Hello, Mr. Reed,” he says in perfect English and with that stupid toothy smile on his face. Always acting so fucking polite. It got on Gavin’s nerves.

“Hey, fuckface,” Gavin throws back, just to watch Eight’s chipper expression shift into a disappointed frown. But whatever satisfaction Gavin gains from that gets fucked when the Andrydian turns his head back and chirps something at Nines.

And of fucking course, Nines pins Gavin with his gaze the moment he realizes he’s here. His head is cocked to the side in a questioning manner and he’s already wearing his helmet and light suit.

“Lost track of time,” Gavin throws out as an excuse as he brushes past Eight and moves towards his locker, opening it up with his wristband. He avoids Nines’ eyes as he takes his own suit out. Avoids Eight’s gaze too, for that matter.

“Hey, Gavin,” Chris says and Gavin silently thanks him for giving him something to focus on other than the wall. “Took you a bit to get here, huh?”

“Yeah, you could say that.” He starts to get into his suit. “Were you able to fix the weight issue?”

“I think I got it sorted out,” Chris says with a big smile, tapping the wrench he has in his hand on one of the plates. “Shouldn’t give you any trouble out there now.”

“That’s what I like to hear.”

Eight doesn’t stick around for too long, soon following after Hank, but Nines waits until Gavin’s done preparing before they both head to their assigned dock—Three, this time—where Tina is waiting for them.

“Refreshed yourself?” Tina asks as Gavin boards their tourer.

“Thoroughly,” Gavin answers once he’s sure everyone— _ especially Nines _ —is out of earshot. He tests the straps on his suit to make himself look busy and leans down to whisper at her. “What the fuck did I say about keeping this a secret?”

“Sorry,” she says, not sounding the slightest bit like she means it. “My tongue slipped.”

“Bitch.”

“Chickenshit,” she shoots back, not missing a beat. “Just ask him.”

“Later,” he says, meaning  _ never, if he can help it.  _ "If we don't come back, will you look after Budweiser for me?" he asks as he gives his laser rifle a check.

"Sure," Tina agrees and turns to take over the controls. "But if you really die out there, I'm changing his name to something normal, like Frogger or Hopkins."

"Don't you fucking dare, the name he’s got already is a fucking masterpiece," Gavin grinds out, glare set on Tina through the visor. She only gives him a cocky grin in return and pats one of his shoulder plates.

"Then you better get back here in one piece, asshole." Her face scrunches up in concentration. “Now go sit in the back and strap in. I’m taking off.”

“Aye-aye, Captain,” Gavin says, giving her a mock salute. He takes his seat next to Nines, closes his eyes and waits for their small ship to detach from the Garden.

They set out to explore a different area of the planet this time around. The tourer’s engines shut down as the ship lands on a patch of clear ground. They wait for their holographic maps to update and display all salient features of their new location within a fifty-mile radius. 

Before leaving, Gavin tells Tina to keep an eye on the scans and let them know if whatever made the sensors go wild yesterday shows up again. With that settled, he exits the tourer and goes after Nines.

The sight that greets them outside isn’t much different than what they found last time. More plants and crystal formations littering the ground.

Hank and Eight decide to head west while Gavin and Nines explore the eastern territory. 

Gavin finds himself alone with the Andrydian again, trudging through an unexplored planet. And he has to hand it to Chris, the shoulder plates don’t feel like boulders weighing his body down. 

Nines walks slightly ahead of him, taking the lead. Business as usual. Except that, no matter how hard he tries, Gavin can’t concentrate on anything other than Nines. Can’t help but stare at the glowing diodes on his tail as they move through the rough foliage.

Gavin wants to ask more questions but there’s no way in hell to do that without sounding invasive as fuck.

_ Get your head in the game, _ he chides himself, using every ounce of willpower to stop thinking about that answer at breakfast. He’s so focused on trying to not think about it, actually, that he doesn’t notice when Nines stops in front of him. He bumps right into the Andrydian’s back like a total imbecile.

“Gavin?” Nines asks as he turns around to look at him, brows knitted in clear concern. Dammit. “Something… wrong?”

“Nothing,” Gavin mutters quickly with a wave of his hand. “Sorry, think I’m a bit distracted.”

“Should we stop?”

“Nah, no, I’m good.” Perfect, actually. Nothing to see here. “I’m going to explore over that way.” Gavin points towards his left with his rifle to a clearing in the distance. “Think you’ll be good on your own for a bit?”

Nines just frowns at him and it looks like he’s about to argue about splitting up. Gavin tenses up when he sees the Andrydian opening his mouth, but then he stops and slowly closes it again. 

He gives a curt nod.

“Great.” Gavin takes that as his chance to slip away, get a few minutes alone to clear his head. God knows that he needs them because he’s acting like a fucking mess.

He treks through the rough bushes, absentminded but looking at the holoscreen on his visor from time to time, just in case the scans pick up anything. As he reaches the clearing, his gaze is immediately drawn to a rather large lake standing right in the middle of it.

"Well, would you look at that," Gavin says as he crouches down to get a closer look at the lake. Its liquid is dark, not translucent at all, so Gavin guesses it doesn’t meet the standard definition of water.

His suspicions are reinforced when he sees large bubbles languidly bursting on the surface, here and there.  _ Fucking weird. _

He presses one of the buttons on his suit’s command panel and a mechanical arm emerges. Gavin enters a few more commands, watching as the arm lowers and sinks partway into the lake.

Gavin waits a few minutes, and then he orders the arm back out of the lake. The recently submerged areas of the extension don’t display any corrosion, no holes in the chassis that Gavin can see. Everything looks just as it did before going below the surface. 

So, this lake’s probably not highly acidic—not enough to eat through metal anyway. He's not about to stick his finger in, though, no matter how curious he might be. God only knows what’s lurking down there.

With a grunt, he focuses back on the panel and checks the temperature registered:  _ 25°C,  _ or _ 77°F.  _ Not too high, around the same figures they registered for the atmosphere. Certainly doesn't explain  _ why the fuck _ this thing is bubbling. 

Gavin tests the sample tube at the end of his suit’s arm by dipping it a little. Once he’s confirmed that the glass will keep the liquid contained without a problem, he quickly takes a few more samples. As far as he knows, this planet could have some underwater geysers. They’ve only explored the surface, for the most part.

“Hey, Nines!” he calls, a bit more confident now that he has something to focus on. “Come take a look at this!” While he waits for the Andrydian to catch up, Gavin takes the opportunity to snap a few pictures of the lake with the camera on his visor.

He hears the sound of footsteps approaching him from behind as he stands up, and Nines’ rumbling voice asking, “Water?”

“Wouldn’t be so sure,” Gavin says as he turns to look at Nines. “Think we could drink it though?”

Nines looks down at the bubbling pit. “Wouldn’t be sure,” he parrots Gavin’s words back at him.

Gavin snorts.

“Same here.”

They’ll know more about what the fuck this is once Eli and his crew run their tests. If they  _ could _ drink this, though, this planet would be the closest they’ve come yet to finding something like Earth. There’s enough plants around that Gavin could almost imagine it. No animals of any kind so far, though—which he still finds weird as shit.

“Hey, Reed,” Hank’s voice comes from the intercom, interrupting them. Gavin lets out a low groan and taps on his helmet to talk back.

“The fuck do you want, old man?”

“Fucking charming as ever, I see,” is Hank’s sarcastic reply. “We found… well, I think it’s best if you two come look at it yourselves. It’s a bit hard to describe.”

“What?” Gavin asks, his attention fully on the conversation now. “An animal? Some sort of plant? Just spit it out Hank.”

“Look, I’m sending the coordinates to you, just get your asses over here, all right?”

“Fine,” Gavin relents. “See you there.” As soon as he cuts the connection, the screen on his helmet blinks as a new location appears on the map. Not too far away from where they are, actually.

“Got a message from Hank,” Gavin explains when he sees Nines’ looking at him, the tip of his tail glowing yellow. “Seems like they found something. Fucker wouldn’t tell me what exactly, just that we should go and see it for ourselves.”

Nines’ ears perk up at that.

“We go, then,” he says, sounding quite eager, to Gavin’s ears. Must be dying to hunt something.

“Yeah, ok. Calm down.” Gavin sends the coordinates to Nines with the press of a few buttons. “Lead the way,” he says and gestures forward.

When they reach the specified location, Hank and Eight are there waiting for them. Standing next to a huge…  _ thing _ that makes Gavin do a double take.

_ Hard to describe _ , Hank had said. Yeah, Gavin can see that now. 

“What the hell is that?” he asks as he takes in everything he sees. 

A series of massive curved spikes form a long wall that arches up towards the sky. Gavin walks around the rocklike structure until he gets to one end where there’s a second curved wall to match, running parallel to the first. The edges of the two formations curve in towards each other at the top, almost coming together to form some kind of tunnel. 

The hollow center of the thing stretches off into the distance from where Gavin stands, interior shadowed by the convex walls that nearly create a rounded ceiling, but never quite touch. Looks like a weird construction, a corridor or passageway. It doesn’t seem like something that would form naturally.

“Yeah, see what I meant now?” Hank says as he walks up to it and hits it a few times with the end of his rifle. “Whatever it is, it’s rock solid.”

“You think it could be a weird crystal formation?” Gavin asks as he moves closer and runs a hand along the outer surface. Just as Hank said, it’s rigid and friction-less under his gloves, not too different from the smooth crystals scattered all over this planet.

“Could be,” Hank says with a nod. “Never seen one like this before. Was hoping maybe you guys had seen something out there.”

“Far from it,” Nines responds as he eyes the formation. “Found a lake, but not… this.”

“The color  _ is _ similar to that of the crystals,” Eight pipes up, his diodes blinking between blue and yellow. He turns to Hank. “We  _ are _ on an alien planet, these types of rock formations could be common here.”

“Already drilled some samples?” Gavin asks without taking his eyes off of it.

“Yes,” Eight says. “Hank took some pictures, too.”

“Great,” Gavin grits out, taking a step back. If that’s the case, then they’re done here, as far as he’s concerned. He’s not sticking around to play twenty questions with Tweedledum and Tweedledee. “Let the scientists back at the Garden figure this one out.”

As he makes to walk back, the ground shakes under his feet. “What the fuck—”

He loses his balance and has to crouch down as an earthquake—a fucking earthquake—makes the landscape tremble around him.

Gavin feels arms around his shoulders as Nines walks up to him and hugs him close to his own body, supporting him. His tail wraps around Gavin’s waist and his chest perceptibly vibrates in sync with the ground below them. Gavin’s too stunned by the gesture to really wrap his head around what’s happening.

He throws a quick glance around and notices that Eight is doing the same to Hank. Protective things, Andrydians, aren’t they?

They stay like this until the earth surrounding them stops moving. The shaking goes away just as fast as it appears, leaving them all perplexed.

“Okay?” Nines asks as he lets go of Gavin, looking him up and down. Gavin is glad he’s got a helmet on with a bunch of holograms obscuring his face, because he can feel his embarrassment creeping up again.

“I’m fine,” he snaps and wiggles away from Nines. It’s fine, they’re both fine.

He turns on communications while Eight tries to help Hank stand back up.

“Chen,” Gavin hisses into the intercom, “the fuck was that?”

“So you felt it too, I wasn't sure if my screen was glitching out,” Tina says. “Looks like we got hit by a small earthquake.”

“You don’t fucking say,” Gavin groans into the com. “A little warning would have been nice, you know?”

“Hey! It sneaked up on me too,” Tina defends herself, typing into her console. “Our little S.U.M.O. registered some shaking when it was first sent to the planet to have a poke around. Looks like this isn’t an isolated event.” 

“What a good survey unit, leaving that in the fine print,” Gavin mutters low under his breath. Fine, so maybe it was his fault for not reading that report as thoroughly as he should. Whatever. “Does that mean we could get another one of these soon?”

“Probably,” Tina replies, a hint of worry bleeding into her voice as she asks, “You’re all alive out there?”   
  
Gavin looks back at Hank and Eight. Both of them look unscathed and slightly annoyed as they wait for him to end the call and tell them what he knows.

“Yeah, we’re good.”

“I’ll do my best to let you know if I see another one coming,” Tina says before her end of the call goes out. Great, that’s definitely reassuring, Chen.

“So, an earthquake then?” Hank asks as he watches Gavin kill the connection.

“Yeah, and it doesn’t look like it’ll be the only one.” Gavin brings one hand up to rub at the visor of his helmet, feeling a headache coming on. “As much as it  _ pains  _ me to say this, let’s stick together. If this planet decides to go all out with the earthquakes then it’s best if we don’t get too far apart.”

Gavin sees Eight nodding his agreement, Nines soon following his example. Hank’s gaze shifts between them for a moment, and then he looks back at Gavin.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Hank says. “Seems like for once we agree on something.”

* * *

The rest of the search turns out to be fruitless. Besides the lake and the crystal formation, they don’t really find anything else that’s worth taking with them.

Another wave of tremors hits, just like Tina said, and they’re forced to return earlier than expected. Which of course suits Gavin just fine. Nines, however, growls what are probably complaints about leaving at Eight for almost the entirety of the trek back to the tourer.

Gavin doesn’t stay too long inside the storage area once they get back to the Garden. He gets out of his suit just fine—lets Chris know that his baby is working at top performance now. 

It’s when he feels Nines’ tail curling around his leg that he has a problem. Gavin jumps, startling both Nines and Chris as he takes a few steps back and shakes off the tail’s grip. Nines looks at him with wide eyes and Gavin sees how his diodes turn yellow, flicking with red for a second before they go back to blue.

“Sorry,” he says, “was just... teasing.”

And Gavin’s retort lodges in his throat. He’s left silently screaming at himself:  _ not that kind of teasing, you idiot. _

Gavin has to quickly excuse himself after that, needing a minute alone to stop his mind from spiraling down that rabbit hole,  _ again _ .

That’s how Gavin finds himself walking into the labs a few hours later, after getting himself another cup of coffee. His feet automatically carry him to the door as he sips on the dregs of his last cup.

He brings his wristband up and requests access.

“Got anything for me, Eli?” he asks as he passes a few of the scientists and finds Elijah already observing some of the samples they collected.

Elijah takes his eyes off the microscope, throws an unimpressed look at Gavin.

“Fancy seeing you here,” he says, turning around to lean against the desk behind him. “Got bored of messing around out there?”

“Can’t blame a man for being curious once in a while,” Gavin remarks as he tosses his empty cup into the trash. “Got something to share with the class?”

Elijah huffs at that.

“Quite.” He moves the screen so that it’s facing both of them. “The samples you brought are fascinating. So far almost every planet we’ve explored has been devoid of life. This one, however....” Elijah taps at the monitor and the screen switches to show a dark background with oblong shapes on it. Gavin notices that most of them are twitching. 

“What the hell am I looking at?”

“Cellular organisms,” Elijah answers, like it’s obvious. Hell, to him it probably is. “They’re small but very much alive,” he continues, “and different from anything we’ve seen. I never thought I’d see life forms that aren’t carbon-based. But with an atmosphere so rich in nitrogen and with a higher pressure than ours, it makes sense these organisms could be silicon-based.” 

The screen zooms in on one of the things, and Elijah points at different parts of it as he talks.

“The membrane surrounding them resembles a hard shell.” He zooms in on another of the creatures. “And these right here, they seem to attach themselves to one another in order to form multicellular structures, tetrahedral in shape. Though I wonder what they live off of in this environment. Nitrogen and hydrogen surely play a part, but in what regard? What do these organisms catabolize?” 

And he’s lost Gavin. Not like Elijah would stop rambling even if he realized Gavin wasn’t keeping up with this impromptu xenobiology course. It almost looks like Elijah’s completely forgotten he’s even there, and now he’s mostly talking to himself.

“Eli, buddy, I love the enthusiasm”—now that’s a fucking lie right there—“but I got about twenty percent of what you just told me.”

Elijah stops mid-sentence and hums, the beginnings of a smirk on his lips. Gavin prepares himself for the sardonic insults he’s sure are coming his way. He’s worked with the man long enough to know Elijah is incapable of letting an opportunity to rub his intellect in someone’s face slip by.

“Forgive me, sometimes I forget not all of us have brains.” There it fucking is. “I’ll try to dumb it down for you.”

“How fucking kind of you,” Gavin says with a sneer. “Anything else?”

Elijah removes his attention from the screen and reads through some of his notes.

“We just finished running the new samples you got us, too. The liquid formations you found consist mostly of a combination of hydrogen and carbon dioxide. There are also trace amounts of sulfur and carbon sulfide present, although as far as I could determine—”

“Great,” Gavin interrupts, “so it’s not drinkable. And here I thought we were onto something.”

Elijah gives him a deadpan look, one Gavin’s not too fond of.

“Was hoping we’d hit on something that resembled Earth, is all,” Gavin grumbles.

“Well, you’re out of luck in this case. The necessary elements are there, but life on this planet has taken a completely different evolutionary route.” He turns back to look at the screens. “If you’ve got nothing else to ask… I need to run more tests to learn more about this new species.”

It was a clear dismissal, and usually, Gavin would take it as his cue to leave.

Usually.

“Any chance I could stick around while you wait on those results?” he asks as he takes an empty glass from the table, watching how the light plays over the clean surface.

Out of the corner of his eye, Gavin sees Elijah freeze and look at him again. He raises an eyebrow before he says, “You, staying here?”

“Yeah?”

  
  
“With  _ me _ ?” Elijah says with clear disbelief in his voice and yeah, Gavin can understand that.

It’s no secret that no one in the ship wants to hang around with Elijah if they can help it, except for Chloe—fuck only knows what she sees in this prick. But what other choice does Gavin have?

He’s not ready to face Nines again just yet. Can’t go to Tina or Chris, either, unless he wants to be pestered to death with teasing comments and friendly attempts at small talk.

It’s not like he plans to avoid the Andrydian forever, he just needs a bit more time to get his mind out of the gutter. If having to deal with Eli is the price to pay, Gavin can make that sacrifice.

“What can I say?” he responds, putting a grin on his face. “Thought it could be interesting to see what you do here all day for once.”

Elijah throws him a deadpan look nearly identical to the last.

“I’m not wasting any time and effort on keeping you entertained, Gavin.” Well, fuck. So much for the sacrifice play.

With that, Elijah goes back to looking at the digital reports laying on the desk, no longer paying attention to him.

“Spoilsport,” Gavin scoffs, but he lets the matter go.

He passes by Chloe on his way out. Like the gentleman he is, Gavin offers her a wave. She responds with an affectionate purr before joining Elijah,diodes glowing a soft blue as her tail swishes close to the ground.

If the labs are out of bounds, Gavin will just have to do his best to avoid Nines. If he’s lucky, he’ll be fast enough to grab something from the cafeteria before the Andrydian does. Stay out of sight until he can go jack off in the showers again and be on his merry way.

* * *

To his surprise, Gavin doesn’t find Nines back in the cafeteria, but his hopes of getting in and out unnoticed soon crash when he spots both Chris and Tina in the room. There’s no way he can grab something without being caught by either of them.

With a sigh, Gavin resigns himself to starvation and walks back into the corridor network. Maybe he can make a quick dash to the recreational area and get himself some snacks from the machine there. Lock himself in his room for the rest of the day.

He’s about to round a corner when he hears growling and clicking on the other side—some of it sounds familiar, but it’s not just Nines he’s hearing. There’s more than one Andrydian down that hallway.

_ So he can socialize with other aliens when he’s not with me, huh, _ is the first thing Gavin thinks, except… those noises don’t sound friendly. He’s spent enough time around Nines to know when the alien is pissed, and right now he  _ sounds  _ pissed. 

Slowly, carefully, Gavin peeks around the corner. What he sees makes his blood boil. 

Nines, backed up against a wall, surrounded by four other Andrydians. All of them are showing their teeth and growling loudly. Nines looks ready to tear into them, claws extended in his hands, diodes glowing a neon red.

One of the Andrydians clicks something at Nines, and he responds with a low growl as he takes a step forward, his tail thrashing wildly behind him.

Gavin’s moving towards them before he can think better of it.

“Hey, you fucks!” he yells, causing all of them to freeze, Nines included. Slowly the Andrydians turn to look at him. Gavin holds his ground and sneers at them. “If you’ve got something to say to my partner, you can say it to me.”

The Andrydians glare at Gavin, their diodes a mix of yellow and red—but he doesn’t let himself show any fear, just stands a little straighter and crosses his arms in front of his chest.

“No?” Gavin prompts when the Andrydians keep quiet. “Then you can fuck right off.”

He sees Nines looking back at him with wide eyes—there’s a hint of fear in them, and for a second Gavin really thinks he’s about to get beaten to a fucking pulp by four giant, scaly pricks. But the Andrydians just let out a series of growls in Gavin’s direction before walking away. One of them clicks one last thing to Nines before following after the others.

Nines glares at their retreating forms as his diodes slowly shift back to an uneasy yellow. When he’s sure they’re out of view, he turns to look at Gavin.

“Thanks,” he says. “Shouldn’t have…”

“Don't mention it. ‘Course I had to,” Gavin says and pats Nines’ arm a few times. “Getting into fights when I’m not around?” He means it as a joke, just something to lift their mood, now that the danger’s passed.

Nines, however, frowns. His diodes go back to red for a second, before going back to gold.

“I don’t like them,” he says with a slight hiss in his voice. He glares down at his hands, turning them into fists. “They don’t like me.”

“Is that why you usually stick with us?” Gavin asks, furrowing his brows. Would make sense if Nines doesn’t like to be around his own kind, Eight being an exception to the rule, apparently.

He can’t deny it, he’s curious to know why there’s such animosity between Nines and the other Andrydians, but with the way Nines is digging his claws into his palms—not the best time to go asking.

Gavin swallows those questions back down. Later, then.

Nines tries to speak up, but it looks like he’s suddenly having trouble forming the words. He lets out a frustrated growl, but gives Gavin a nod.

“Sorry,” he grits out. “I can leave… your table.”

What?

“What—? No. Fuck that. Fuck  _ them _ ,” Gavin says quickly, waving a hand around to catch Nines’ attention. “I don’t mind if you sit with us, dude. And I know for a fact Tina and Chris don’t mind either.”

“Fuck them,” Nines repeats as he loosens his fists. He looks at Gavin and offers a small smile that leaves him a bit breathless. “Thank you.”

“Again, don’t mention it,” Gavin says again, rubbing at the back of his neck.

“So… back to the cafeteria? I’m starving,” he says after a bit of silence. Since he’s pretty much screwed his chances of avoiding Nines altogether and ghosting him again at this juncture would be a dick move, might as well.

“After you,” Nines says and waits for Gavin to lead the way.


End file.
